Lottery tickets are commonly manufactured as a ribbon-like length of card, with individual tickets separated by a line of perforations, such that they may be torn off from an end of the ribbon.
An example of a known design of housing for the display and dispensing of lottery tickets from such a ribbon has a housing body with a pivotable, opening housing door. The housing door can be locked closed to the housing body. The housing door has an elongate dispensing aperture. When the end of the ribbon of tickets positioned to project through the aperture, from within the housing, tickets may be dispensed through the aperture. A pair of rollers is provided, over which tickets pass as they are withdrawn from within the housing. A pivotable security cover can be locked to cover the dispensing aperture and prevent unauthorised withdrawal of tickets from within the housing. The lock assembly is mounted in the main door and the security cover is locked by the engagement of a single, common locking arm through a locking slot in each of the security cover and the main housing body.
In such a device, the security cover is not separately lockable from the main door. Further, the free end of the ribbon of tickets can spring back into the housing, and withdraw from the dispensing aperture, requiring the main door of the housing to be unlocked, and the security of the whole ribbon to be compromised, so that the free end of the ribbon of tickets can be re-threaded into the dispensing aperture to enable further tickets to be dispensed. Yet further, such devices are difficult to detachably secure to the counter in a retail outlet. Also, each such device requires to be separately secured to the retail counter.
A further example of a known design of housing for the display and dispensing of lottery tickets from a ribbon of tickets has a housing having one or more divider portions that partially divide the interior of the housing, to facilitate the separate dispensing of tickets from two or more different ribbons of tickets that are stored side-by-side within the housing.
Such devices having housings configured for a plurality of ticket ribbons are larger than devices having housings configured for dispensing from only a single ribbon of tickets, and more cumbersome, increasing transport and storage expenses. Further, the provision of different sizes of device, to accommodate different numbers of ribbons of tickets increases manufacturing expenses. Yet further, such devices impose limitations upon the arrangement of the retail display of the ribbons of tickets.
Examples of known designs of housing for the display and dispensing of lottery tickets from such a ribbon are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,873,481 and 5,492,398.